Sunday, September 30, 2012

Discourse in the Novel 3

Below are some of my favorite quotes.

The ideological becoming of a human being, in this view, is the process of selectively assimilating the words of others.

I guess the "assimilation" part of this statement is open to debate. From a situated/distributed cognition perspective nothing is really internalized in a mechanical way and certainly nothing goes in unless it is absolutely necessary since our mental capacities/resources are limited and thus precious. But it can also be argued that assimilation here is used as in physiology, which involves conversion of nutrients, not in a linguistic or sociological sense, where assimilation entails exertion of power on something more passive or less powerful. Also the word "selectively" leaves room for agency but kind of implies consciousness on the part of the agent, which may or may not be the case. I'm not quite sure about how to interpret this quote.

Our ideological development is just such an intense struggle within us for hegemony among various available verbal and ideological points of view, approaches, directions and values. The semantic structure of an internally persuasive discourse is not finite, it is open; in each of the new contexts that dialogize it, this discourse is able to reveal ever newer ways to mean.

I like Bakhtin's ideas very much but I'm ambivalent about his extensive use of this struggle metaphor. Maybe it is the influence of Marxism. I sometimes wonder, what is this internal struggle? how can it be internal and without action? who/what are the parties involved? what do the parties fight with or fight for? what gives them competitive advantage? What I like about this quote is the idea of open-endedness and infinite possibilities, which are more postmodern ideas than Bakhtin's binary oppositions. I also find the idea of changing the frame in order to find new and different meanings of the painting quite stimulating. A conception of "context" in these terms can be quite fruitful in language learning, considering the vast diversity of language learners, teachers, countries, and institutions language learning takes place.

A significant number of words can be identified that are implicitly or explicitly admitted as someone else's, and that are transmitted by a variety of different means.

I find this quote interesting because I think it has potential applications for vocabulary development too. As a second language learner I remember how I learned some specific words from specific people. It's not even just words, sometimes I remember learning specific phrases from specific people or texts. What makes us remember the learning of some specific words from specific people and not others? Wouldn't it make an interesting study if we explored the emotions associated with those words we remember how/where/when we learned? Wouldn't it be interesting if we examined which texts/people are more instrumental in our vocabulary development and why? This reminds me of a study that investigates linguistic consciousness in this perspective rather than vocabulary acquisition but still it gives me ideas. Here is the abstract

Commentators on language standardization, including Bourdieu and Bakhtin, provide various perspectives on what this chapter calls modern linguistic consciousness: speakers' awareness of their own speech in relation to others' and in relation to the operation of centralizing system. In this chapter, these formulations are used to analyze interview data collected from readers and writers at a South Asian university--and, in turn, these data elaborate the picture of modern linguistic consciousness. Readers and writers can pick out self amidst the words of others, and in the presence of centralizing mandates; they can position themselves in working spaces adjacent to system, and, while recognizing speech norms, imagine themselves as not occupying these norms. Linguistic consciousness can be detected in the expression of rules--but rules themselves turn out to be complex spaces hosting diverse possibilities. Moreover, modern systems, in managing the speech of populations, may not always operate exclusively in the service of the centre.

About Me

What can I say, I'm a dreamer. Here is some unnecessary info about me. Here is a riddle for you. Who am I? I’m happily married with a wonderful man who turns my life into a fairy tale. I’m a romantic (as you can tell). Feel free to recommend me romantic movies, poems and novels. I’m from a beautiful city Istanbul, which I miss immensely. I’m a night owl so please approach with caution in the mornings for I might bite (just kidding). I’m pretty clumsy so watch out. I like to sing and dance when I’m home alone. I’m all and none of these things. I like Anime. Well, it’s more than a ‘like’. Actually, I believe that I’m an anime character living in an Anime world—the only thing missing is cherry blossoms in the moonlight. The trees in front of Heavilon Hall (the building I work) should do for now. I like the smell of strawberry jam and oranges. I like looking at beautiful things (the sea and van Gogh paintings are my favorite). I like ice cream, the sound of violin and watching the snow. These are a few of my favorite things (please feel free to sing along this song here). Please write some comments. I’d love to hear about your favorite things and your travails.

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Favorite Quotes

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Francis Bacon

Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home. Goethe

I am alone here in my own mind. There is no map and there is no road. It is one of a kind just as yours is. Anne Sexton

No master spirit, no determined road; But equally a want of books and men! William Wordsworth

There are more ideas on earth than intellectuals imagine. And these ideas are more active, stronger, more resistant, more passionate than politicians think. We have to be there at the birth of ideas, the bursting outward of their force: not in books expressing them, but in events manifesting this force, in struggles carried on around ideas, for or against them. Ideas do not rule the world. But it is because the world has ideas... that it is not passively ruled by those who are its leaders or those who would like to teach it, once and for all, what it must think. Michel Foucault

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Marianne Williamson

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. Dorothy Parker.

Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous, anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not. Vaclav Havel

He who has a why can endure any how. Friedrich Nietzsche

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. Ralph W. Emerson.

No facts are to me sacred, none are profane; I simply experiment, and endless seeker with no past at my back. Ralph W. Emerson

You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star. Friedrich Nietzsche

Ben buradayim ey okuyucu, sen neredesin? Oguz Atay

And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. Friedrich Nietzsche

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth. Friedrich Nietzsche

What strikes me is the fact that in our society, art has become something which is only related to objects, and not to individuals, or to life. Michel Foucault

Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs. David Ben Gurion

Although there may be nothing new under the sun, what is old is new to us and so rich and astonishing that we never tire of it. If we do tire of it, if we lose our curiosity, we have lost something of infinite value, because to a high degree it is curiosity that gives meaning and savour to life. Robertson Davies

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. Albert Einstein

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. Albert Einstein

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. Friedrich Nietzsche

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. Socrates

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. Oscar Wilde

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. Umberto Eco

The unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates, in Plato, Dialogues, Apology